Can someone who's ordered from Amazon UK lately tell me how long the slow shipping to the US usually takes?

Sure.

I've ordered four BD sets from Amazon.co.uk in the last few months, around early November for three of them and the Alien set here at the beginning of the month.

The sets I ordered in early November shipped about a day after ordering and arrived about a week after they were shipped out. My Alien set shipped on the 2nd and I haven't seen it yet, though the mail hasn't made it here today. There's notices all over the Amazon.co.uk site that they're having weather issues all over the country that's adding 2-3 days delay to domestic shipments so I'd assume the same for international shipments.

When I put it into my cart this morning to see the current USD price, it's saying that it would be delivered after Christmas, so I wouldn't order this from Amazon.co.uk if you're looking to have this as a Christmas present for someone. If you don't care about shipping speeds, this is a great deal.

I'm a blu-ray noob, will these imports work fine on a U.S. PlayStation 3?

These are region-free releases, so yes, they work OK in a US BluRay player. Not all BluRay releases are region free, so you need to check before you order.

#21
BustaUppa
what it is right now
CAGiversary! 4993 Posts Joined 13.6 Years Ago

Wow, I hadn't even factored in the lack of U.S. sales tax (New Yorkers get charged with regular Amazon). I'll definitely have to keep a watchful eye on these UK blu-ray deals from now on. I missed out an some savings with the "Planet Earth" series, but thankfully that just amounted to a few bucks. Now, here I am getting ~48% off one of my wishlist items. Beautiful!!

Wow, I hadn't even factored in the lack of U.S. sales tax (New Yorkers get charged with regular Amazon). I'll definitely have to keep a watchful eye on these UK blu-ray deals from now on. I missed out an some savings with the "Planet Earth" series, but thankfully that just amounted to a few bucks. Now, here I am getting ~48% off one of my wishlist items. Beautiful!!

Not every BD title is region-free, so you need to make sure it's region-free before ordering.

I replied to your post in the general BD discussion thread about a couple of resources I've used previously.

I ordered "life" from amazon uk that I was told was region free and lo and behold it would not play in any of my region 1 players. I never could figure out where I made the mistake. Needless to say I'm leery ordering from amazon uk again. I'm sure it was my error but anyways.

I ordered "life" from amazon uk that I was told was region free and lo and behold it would not play in any of my region 1 players. I never could figure out where I made the mistake. Needless to say I'm leery ordering from amazon uk again. I'm sure it was my error but anyways.

The problem with Life (as with the Planet Earth SE) is that it was created for British TV (which runs at 50hz, as opposed to US TVs which run at 60hz), and is therefore encoded on the disc at 1080i50, which many US blu-ray players (and TVs) cannot play. Here's a post that I made on a thread about Planet Earth regarding the issue with some more info:

Be aware that the special edition is encoded in 1080i50, and a US PS3 (and many other US blu-ray players) won't be able to play it because they can't do 50hz playback.

There's a (now somewhat outdated) list here of US blu-ray players that will be able to play the special edition: http://forum.blu-ray...patibility.html If your blu-ray player isn't on that list, I would make the assumption that your blu-ray player can't play it unless you can specifically find out otherwise. Keep in mind that even if your player is on the list, you will also need either a TV that supports 50hz, or a video processor to convert it to a frame rate that your TV does support (unless your blu-ray player is capable of doing the frame rate conversion to 60hz itself, which a few models are).

Also, while the blu-rays are region-free, the included DVD is region locked to region 2. You'll need a region-free DVD player in order to play it.

The original set (the one in the OP here) is 1080p24, so it will play on US players without an issue. Unfortunately, it has several problems of its own (which the special edition was meant to fix). It seems that we just can't get a break on the issues with this title over here.

Movies, for the most part, won't be a problem, as they are generally encoded at 24fps. Still, it's one more thing to watch out for when importing discs.

Ugh, $40 is my sweet spot for this but I'd rather use up some Amazon credit to get it. Really wish this was in the US. :\

Worth noting, the packaging for the UK version is somewhat different from the US version (the UK version has actual digipack trays, whereas with the US version, the discs are slid in and out of slots in the cardboard). Personally, I strongly prefer the UK packaging and have been waiting for a deal on the UK version. I may have to order this.

The problem with Life (as with the Planet Earth SE) is that it was created for British TV (which runs at 50hz, as opposed to US TVs which run at 60hz), and is therefore encoded on the disc at 1080i50, which many US blu-ray players (and TVs) cannot play. Here's a post that I made on a thread about Planet Earth regarding the issue with some more info:

Movies, for the most part, won't be a problem, as they are generally encoded at 24fps. Still, it's one more thing to watch out for when importing discs.

Worth noting, the packaging for the UK version is somewhat different from the US version (the UK version has actual digipack trays, whereas with the US version, the discs are slid in and out of slots in the cardboard). Personally, I strongly prefer the UK packaging and have been waiting for a deal on the UK version. I may have to order this.

#29
linkbear
Too Cool For School
CAGiversary! 438 Posts Joined 8.3 Years Ago

I've ordered four BD sets from Amazon.co.uk in the last few months, around early November for three of them and the Alien set here at the beginning of the month.

The sets I ordered in early November shipped about a day after ordering and arrived about a week after they were shipped out. My Alien set shipped on the 2nd and I haven't seen it yet, though the mail hasn't made it here today. There's notices all over the Amazon.co.uk site that they're having weather issues all over the country that's adding 2-3 days delay to domestic shipments so I'd assume the same for international shipments.

When I put it into my cart this morning to see the current USD price, it's saying that it would be delivered after Christmas, so I wouldn't order this from Amazon.co.uk if you're looking to have this as a Christmas present for someone. If you don't care about shipping speeds, this is a great deal.

These are region-free releases, so yes, they work OK in a US BluRay player. Not all BluRay releases are region free, so you need to check before you order.

I ordered Harry Potter blu-ray set and the Planet Earth (non SE) from amazon UK Thanksgiving weekend. I received Planet Earth a week later, but have yet to receive Harry Potter. Realize the weather there a couple weeks ago was grounding a lot of flights, just thought it was weird that the Planet Earth I ordered a few days after the Harry Potter set got here first.

I ordered Harry Potter blu-ray set and the Planet Earth (non SE) from amazon UK Thanksgiving weekend. I received Planet Earth a week later, but have yet to receive Harry Potter. Realize the weather there a couple weeks ago was grounding a lot of flights, just thought it was weird that the Planet Earth I ordered a few days after the Harry Potter set got here first.

My girlfriend ordered a bunch of CDs from Amazon UK on Nov. 24th, and according to Amazon they were all shipped on the same day in two separate packages. A box with a few of them showed up about a week later on Dec. 2nd, but the other larger box has yet to show up. She's freaked out that it got lost or stolen. I've been telling her not to worry about it yet because it's such a busy shipping time, though that's getting harder to defend by the day. Tomorrow is actually Amazon's estimated delivery date on it, so if it doesn't show up by then, we're going to file a claim -- and probably get told to wait another week or two, but at least we'll have set the wheels in motion. I just hope that if it comes down to it, Amazon UK is as good about replacing lost/missing items as Amazon US is.

But anyway, yeah, delivery from Amazon UK in the US is seriously unpredictable, mostly due to complications from international/overseas shipping. You just have to kind of roll with it and accept that orders from them are sometimes going to come right away, and sometimes take a long while to arrive.

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